Facebook Has Better Uses for Its Cash Than Stock Buybacks
Sniffing out hoaxes and better protecting users’ data, for starters.
A signal of confidence feels forced.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Can you think of ways Facebook might spend $9 billion of its cash?
If I were making a short list, I would put on it hiring more moderators to do the terrible, laborious work of actively sniffing out hoaxes, election-related tampering and calls to violence on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and other Facebook-owned hangouts. It might not hurt to increase investment on cybersecurity to do more to prevent foreign governments from using Facebook as a tool for propaganda or to prevent thieves from taking advantage of Facebook software loopholes to compromise accounts of tens of millions of people. Facebook could spend even more on policy wonks to shape and prepare for more heavy-handed regulation of tech companies. I could go on.